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Careers Advice for Young People

In our latest careers advice for young people article we look at why the usual careers advice services are not helping unemployed graduates to find the job they need.

Poor careers advice is often cited by graduates who are looking for a good start to their careers in their chosen profession. You hear stories of highly qualified graduates who end up flipping burgers just to bring in an income which is a waste of talent when you consider the cost of a university education.

So how can we ensure that our young graduates do not become discouraged with the whole jobs advice process and end up in a job they do not like in order to survive financially?

One novel way to find the job you really want is to go and interview people in the job sector that you want to work in. If for example you are looking for a career in accountancy then find a few accountancy firms in your area and ask if you can film a video interview for your college project.

This achieves two things; first of all it builds your confidence for when you come to attend real job interviews, and secondly makes the companies who may be your prospective employers aware of you. Can you imagine if you go for an interview for a job and you are up against other similarly qualified graduates and you mention that you have already interviewed many local companies and know quite a lot about their line of work, who do you think will have a better chance of getting the job?

From an employer’s point of view it is expensive to recruit someone new to their business. They have to pay a recruiting agency usually to collect CV’s and perform an initial vetting of prospects. Then they have to use a member of staff to interview candidates and then go through all the interviews to try and select the right person for the job.

If you have already shown initiative, drive, lack of fear by conducting your own interviews and a good grasp of technology by producing and uploading your videos online then they are more likely to choose you in preference to the other candidates.

So don’t sit on your laurels and think that there are not any good jobs out there because of cutbacks and the recession, go and make something happen by doing something different and get podcasting, who knows you might find that is the career you have been looking for.